OSU-Mansfield professor emeritus wins 'Friend of Darwin' award
The National Center for Science Education has awarded a 2022 Friend of Darwin award to Tim M. Berra, academy professor emeritus of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at the Ohio State University.
Berra is also Professorial Fellow at Charles Darwin University, and the author of "Evolution and the Myth of Creationism" (1980).
"Tim Berra has helped to expose the flaws of creationism going back to the days of creation science," said NCSE Executive Director Ann Reid. "And in addition to his distinguished ichthyological career, Berra has also contributed to the history of science with a concise biography of Charles Darwin and a biographical study of Darwin's offspring.
The Friend of Darwin awards are presented annually to a select few whose efforts to support NCSE and advance its goal of defending and supporting the teaching of evolution have been truly outstanding. Along with Berra, the other 2022 winners are Lisa D. White, director of education and outreach at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, and Adam Laats, professor of teaching, learning, and educational leadership at Binghamton University and the author of "Creationism USA" (2020).
Previous recipients of the Friend of Darwin Award include evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski, paleontologist and author Neil Shubin, and science educator Susan Epperson.
The nonprofit National Center for Science Education supports and defends the accurate teaching of climate change, evolution and the nature of science.
In 1995, Berra took early retirement from OSU-Mansfield to do research full time. In 2001 he was in Australia to conduct research on Kurtus gulliveri, or nurseryfish, while fighting off crocodiles in the Outback. This research continued during eight field seasons over 16 years.
Berra began his OSU life 50 years ago in January of this year.
"Here I am still alive, still at OSU, and still doing research," he said in an email. "I arrived after a year at University of Papua New Guinea on 29 December 1971 and started teaching in Winter 1972. That winter nearly killed me since I had been in Australia and the tropics for 2.5 years before descending into Ohio winter," he added.
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Formerly teaching at OSU Mansfield, Tim Berra still doing research
